Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence June quarter net profit up 42-pct

Aug 11, 2017, 03:32 PM

Sri Lanka’s Aitken Spence said June 2017 quarter net profit grew 42 percent to 355 million rupees from a year ago, helped by strong gains from its power plant, while maritime business earnings fell and hotels losses widened.

Group sales increased 54 percent to 11.6 billion rupees, according to interim results filed with the stock exchange.

Earnings per share for the quarter grew to 0.87 rupees, up 42 percent over the corresponding period in the previous year. Aitken Spence’s share last traded at 62.50 rupees.

The accounts showed earnings from its strategic investment sector, under which comes power, tripled during the period.

“Our maritime and logistics, strategic investments, and services sectors contributed well to the performance of the group,” said J M S Brito, deputy chairman and managing director of Aitken Spence.

“In the tourism sector, the travels segment did well, while the hotels segment showed mixed results. Hotels in the Maldives improved on the last year’s performance in the first quarter, and we expect the growth momentum to continue. Our hotels in Sri Lanka had a challenging year despite strong performances from our flagship properties, Heritance Kandalama and Heritance Tea Factory,” said Brito.

“The resumption of full operations of its power plant in Embilipitiya and the consolidation of RIU Sri Lanka hotel as a subsidiary with effect from the third quarter of the last financial year boosted the Group’s revenue.”

The 500-room RIU Sri Lanka located in Ahungalla is a partnership between Aitken Spence and RIU Hotels & Resorts.

A subsidiary company of Aitken Spence launched a 10 MW waste-to-energy plant at Muthurajawela, which will be operational in two years.

The plant will use waste generated from the Colombo municipal limits, utilizing moving grate incinerator technology, said Brito.